Summer Wipeout: Festivals across the county fall victim to coronavirus

The Blue Jean Country Queen Festival run by Meath Macra na Feirme, due to take place over the June Bank Holiday Weekend in Athboy, will not go ahead due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued at the weekend, the committee expressed their disappointment that there will be no festival in 2020, but explained that the tough decision was made in the interest of health and safety of all attendees of the festival.

Only a few weeks ago, the festival committee had announced that the Blizzards and Jake Carter would both be performing over the weekend. The festival organisers are now focused on next year's festival and have expressed their gratitude to the local community and sponsors for their support over the years and look forward to working with them again in the future.

Moynalty Steam Threshing has also announced that it would not be in the public health interest to proceed with the threshing event in August this year.

"This decision to cancel this years event was not taken lightly, as we have always been proud to be able to facilitate the threshing day no matter the weather or circumstances, but the public health interest must be our key consideration," the committee said.

"To all our stallholders and exhibitors we thank you for your support over the years and your understanding with the current circumstances. Moynalty Steam Threshing has already started work on our 2021 event securing our headline music act Nathan Carter along with all the crowd favourites.

"We hope that together we can get through this pandemic once we all act responsibly as both communities and individuals."

In Kells, having already been forced to cancel the Hindsight Festival last month, the organisers have said they have no option but to cancel the main Hinterland Festival from 25th to 28th June. A full programme has been in place since early February, this has now been abandoned. The aim is to replicate as much of this programme as possible from 24th to 27th June 2021.

Already cancelled and due to take place next month is the Navan Choral Festival, which brings hundreds of visitors to Navan every year and has been running for over 40 years.

The Committee of the Tattersalls Ireland July Show 2020 has decided that it will not run this year. The show is run each year as a fund-raiser for St Francis Hospice in Blanchardstown and Raheny and their efforts in this regard for 2020 have been completely decimated.

"We know things are difficult for people in the present climate but would ask that anyone who can help the Hospice to please do so – no matter how small a donation it will be gratefully received," Mary Lanigan of Tattersalls says. "It all makes a difference. You can make contact at (01)8294000 or www.stfrancishospice.ie."

The RDS announced on Monday that the 2020 Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup Dublin Horse Show due to take place from 15th to 19th July will be cancelled due to ongoing concerns regarding the continuing impact of the coronavirus.

The scale of the show necessitates preparations beginning months in advance, with horses in training around Ireland for the many national competitions held as part of the show. Qualifiers scheduled to begin this month are unable to proceed this year in the current circumstances. In addition, the RDS begins its on-site preparations many months in advance of the five-day Show which attracts over 100,000 visitors.

Haven taken the decision early in the covid outbreak to postpone this year's Dunderry Fair, the committee was keen to keep the charitable ethos going, as it was deemed even more necessary given current circumstances.

A Covid-19 Go Fund Me page was quickly set up on the Dunderry Fair Facebook page with an initial target of €2,000. To date, they have sourced and delivered consignments of PPE equipment to Blanchardstown Hospital, St Joseph's Community Nursing Unit on Trim, and nursing homes in Killucan and Athboy.

Baby monitors were purchased and delivered also to aid safe patient-carer communication in some facilities, and t he committee is also looking at purchasing tablets for hospitals and hospices.

"We are also acutely aware of the lack of funding for all our local charities and we were very happy to continue to support the great ongoing work by Meals on Wheels in Navan and other local causes,” said a spokesperson.

Such was the support for the initiative, that the target has been raised to €5,000.

“But were not stopping there we want to keep it going so help us reach our revised target of €5,000 on the Dunderry Fair face book gofundme page.”

It was also revealed this year's Salmon of Knowledge festival in Trim won't take place. In a statement organisers said: "Our festival is a free family fun day/weekend which depended entirely on the brilliant support of local businesses, local authorities and local representatives all of which have enough firefighting to do with the fallout from this Pandemic. For safety reasons alone we feel it is the right thing to do.

"We thank everyone for their continued support and we will be showing some of our highlights from our last 3 festivals over the coming days. Let us look forward to our 2021 event where we will celebrate overcoming this Virus. Keep safe everyone."